Episode 5
It Was Just My Misunderstanding (1)
It happened a few days later.
“Huh?”
While I was sound asleep, an odd and eerie feeling suddenly coursed through my body, making me shiver and snap my eyes open.
Something feels off.
And then I noticed—it wasn’t bright daylight with the sun pouring in. It was still early dawn, with a faint blue hue seeping in from the horizon.
My stomach growled.
I smacked my lips and instinctively turned to look for Lira, who always stood by, ready for anything—but the room was empty.
Huh? There’s no one here?
Ever since the kidnapping incident, I always woke up to someone nearby, day or night.
Sometimes it was Lira. Sometimes, a stranger in maid uniform.
But never had I woken up to complete silence and solitude.
Why is it so quiet?
An inexplicable unease stirred in my heart, as if something ominous was looming.
I slowly scooted to the edge of the bed and placed my feet on the floor.
Tap, tap.
Wobbling, I reached out for the wall to steady myself. Then I did something I’d never done before—I pushed the door by myself.
“Gyaaah!”
Maybe it had been left slightly ajar, but even with baby strength, the door opened easily. What lay beyond was a long, eerily quiet hallway of the mansion.
I didn’t know why, but something told me that if I stayed here, I’d miss something important.
“Bwehh!”
It’s okay!
Summoning a spirit of adventure, I stepped out.
I didn’t know what I’d find on the other side, but I had to go.
Lira said it yesterday:
“Tomorrow is your birthday, My Lady!”
Then why is no one around? Where’s Lira?
My heart pounded.
Even after walking a fair bit, the hallway stretched endlessly. I felt dizzy just looking at it.
I debated going back.
“Ahnng…”
Though the mansion’s structure made getting lost unlikely, this walk was way too much for a baby’s short legs.
Just as I thought to turn around and go back to bed, I heard voices—raised and tense, like people arguing.
Turning the corner, I was met with a scene utterly different from the silent hallway behind me.
I froze.
Like a statue, I couldn’t move or speak.
People moved busily with dark expressions, maids with troubled faces, others looking as if they were barely holding back tears—and the sound of a baby crying somewhere among them.
Everything felt so chaotic.
“Your Grace, we’ve brought the second young lady.”
Second?
The woman who entered looked soft and kind, unusually gentle—very unlike how she usually appeared. She was holding a baby, seemingly around my age.
Lira.
But what really caught my attention was the baby’s hair. A brilliant, unmistakable shade of pink.
A perfectly adorable child, with clear features like a sugar-sculpted doll. Though she was the same size as me, the woman had called her the second daughter.
But Duke Hillington only has one daughter.
So then… who is she?
As I stood there stunned, the mood among the adults shifted again—this time, to panic.
“Doctor, the Duchess… she’s…”
“No! Bring the holy water!”
“It’s no use. She’s already…”
She’s gone.
My heart dropped.
Though they weren’t talking about me, it brought back something the doctor had once said to me in my past life.
No. This isn’t right.
My legs trembled violently.
The Duchess?
It wasn’t just shock over someone’s death.
It was the realization that the hope I had held onto all this time… was a fragile illusion, ready to shatter at any moment.
I…
No one had ever called me by name. That’s why I didn’t realize it sooner.
Could it be that I…
My hair isn’t the sweet rosy-pink of Rosé.
I’m not Rosé…
In the original story, the Duchess dies from postpartum complications not long after giving birth to Rosé.
But this… this is different.
Too different.
I’m not Rosé.
And that man—my father in this life—had never smiled at me like that.
He held that unfamiliar baby close, shedding tears as he whispered:
“Rosie, say goodbye to your mother, who’s leaving us.”
“Your Grace, shall I bring the first young lady as well?”
“Yes. She’ll be shocked, but… she should see.”
He gently stroked the baby’s soft hair as if she were the most precious thing in the world.
Then, crying like pearls falling from his beautiful eyes, he knelt by his dying wife with the baby in his arms.
“My love, see Rosé’s face one last time before you go. See our children before you leave.”
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
“My love? Elizabeth?”
“Elizabeth, please, don’t go like this…”
The floor beneath me seemed to crumble.
Their grief, their despair, their sorrow—it was overwhelming.
And yet… the scene was beautiful.
Like a tragic painting.
I stood frozen, like a shadow, holding my breath.
A sharp ache pierced my chest. Sadness surged up.
I don’t belong there.
Like I was just… extra. A mistake.
In a world that revolved solely around Rosé.
A thunderclap crashed like someone’s scream.
The staff could only watch helplessly as their beautiful family fell apart.
Siers von Hillington.
His blessing would later be formally announced at his dukedom inauguration.
People used to say that blessing didn’t suit him.
A cold, strict man who pushed even himself to the limits—how could he have received a blessing related to love?
But then he met Elizabeth.
A woman with flowing, soft pink hair and gentle red eyes like sugar—sweet and graceful.
The moment he met her, Siers changed completely.
Their love story became a legendary romance.
Everyone in the mansion adored them and prayed for their happiness.
But in the end… it came to this.
A man who had never known defeat was brought to his knees by grief.
A perfect life destroyed—he lost his wife after birthing twins.
After losing their firstborn to the temple, the Duchess held on, determined to find her daughter.
But she couldn’t hold out forever.
Now, having lost the woman who was like his heart itself, the Duke no longer held onto noble pride or composure.
So the Duchess couldn’t hold on after all.
Everyone wept as they watched.
And only then did they notice something.
Someone else was here.
“Could it be… the first young lady…?”
Following the startled gaze of a maid, everyone turned to see the small child—me—standing quietly in the hallway, watching everything.
Only then did they remember.
They hadn’t brought the first daughter to say goodbye.
Some even wondered… Was it because she was the reason the Duchess had died?
That’s why Rosé was brought first.
I stood there unsteadily, bracing against the wall, looking like I might collapse.
When our eyes met, some felt an inexplicable ache in their hearts.
“My lady?”
Lira quickly approached and scooped me into her arms.
Everyone thought the same thing.
When did she get here? Did she walk all this way herself?
A child wouldn’t understand death, yet I kept my eyes fixed on my mother, my father, and my twin sister.
Like I did understand.
Though I didn’t cry, my silence was somehow sadder than tears.
Even the maids who hadn’t undergone emotional restraint training couldn’t help but tear up.
“She’s not even crying…”
The baby girl just stood still, as if afraid to approach.
“Lira, what are you doing? Bring the eldest young lady to him…”
A sobbing maid called out.
Lira blinked and then approached the Duke.
“Your Grace, the first young lady is here.”
Everyone watched as the baby hid her face in Lira’s shoulder.
A sigh of pity escaped the room.
They realized—she didn’t recognize her father.
He’d always been at the Duchess’s side.
He was a stranger to her.
Then slowly, I peeked out from Lira’s embrace, looked at the Duke… at the twin in his arms… and finally at the mother lying still.
My gaze broke everyone’s heart.
“…Ma…”
Why did my tiny murmur sound so much like “Mama”?
The Duke burst into tears and reached out.
“…Hildea…”
Hildea.
It was the name no one had dared call since she’d been taken to the temple.
“My lord, shall I hold the other child—?”
“No. Bring her here.”
Startled, I flinched, but the Duke carefully cradled me in his other arm—Rosé in one, me in the other.
And so the Duke, now a widower, and his twin daughters stood frozen beside their fallen mother—like souls who had lost their way.
No one knew just how deeply this moment would scar me.
The death of the Duchess spread like wildfire across the empire.
The legendary romance between Duke Siers and Elizabeth, once known to all as a fairytale, had ended in tragedy.
People mourned.
It felt like a perfect happy ending had been destroyed.
But that was reality.
And for the nobles, it meant something else entirely.
If the pillars of the Empire were Hillington and Belkius—then both were now in shambles.
Belkius had lost most of its bloodline.
Now Hillington had lost its love.
The Emperor’s power would falter.
“His Majesty must be in crisis.”
“Rumor is the Belkius heir has lost his mind.”
“The royalist faction is gaining strength.”
“But… will Hillington truly fall?”
“That love was too loud to be ignored. Who knows? Maybe he’ll follow her in death.”
“But they were twin girls, right? Would he really—?”
“You clearly don’t understand the curse of a blessing. When they lose those they love, they lose everything. Only the children suffer in the end.”
“And some say… the Duchess died because of the blessing the first daughter carries.”
“No one knows the exact wording unless it’s officially declared… but what kind of curse must it be for such rumors to spread?”
“And remember what happened at the temple.”
“So? Does that mean the first daughter caused her mother’s death?”
“She grew sicker ever since giving birth to them.”
The nobles gossiped endlessly.
Some even mocked the fall of the once proud houses of Hillington and Belkius.
Because to them, watching the mighty fall was amusing.
But most were dying to know one thing—
“So what happened to the child who supposedly killed her mother?”
